Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed a key Hamas leader on Monday — the latest casualty amid an escalating barrage of attacks from the other country. Three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were also killed in Beirut in the first such hit with the capital city limits.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin — identified as the leader of Hamas in Lebanon — was killed along with his family after a strike targeted their house within a refugee camp in Tyre.
Israeli missiles also struck a building in the heart of Beirut in the early hours of Monday in a first-of-its-kind attack. Three members of the PFLP were killed in the strike. Reuters eyewitnesses said the strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building.
The attacks signal no let up in Israel’s campaign to paralyze its enemies in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region after assassinating Hezbollah’s long-elusive leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it the biggest-ever blow to Iran’s network of proxy militias spanning from Gaza to Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
Israel has said it’s preparing a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon, a step the US and other world powers fear would risk a drawn-out conflict that might directly pit Tehran against Washington. Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past two weeks have killed at least 1,000 people, including 100 in the last 24 hours, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, according to local officials.
(With inputs from agencies)
